Category: Cluetrain (Page 5 of 10)

To tell you the truth, I’m not all that excited about his candidacy, but this is a way to test out TVW’s new video embed tool. So, watch the clip and let me know what you think, not of Jason Osgood, but of the video itself and how easily you can view it.

UPDATE: embed code updated June 19, 12:55 p.m.

From embedding it just now, there seems to be a little bit of a bump between the video and audio starting. The audio went, but the video was frozen. Then both the audio and video began in sync twice before it started for good.

The only major problem was that the video did not end at the point I had wanted it to, it kept on going.

Most of my problems so far have to do with trying to find exactly where in the more than one hour long video file I wanted to start, so its just a problem with the large file size.

Getting the embed code went quickly, as soon as I narrowed down what part of the movie I wanted to show. Generally, good job Scott at TVW.

Or so says Scott “the Man” Freeman in comments:

So I have a green light on the time code feature and I am sending an email to goldy to ask for feature suggestions before I get this up on our website. So rally the bloggers brains and let’s make this a cool functional and open feature of tvw.org! I will be working from a beta this coming week and I will get you a link so some folks can test it. I am hoping for 2 weeks from Monday for a launch.

He also says that the original way you could embed videos from TVW wasn’t pulled down because of security or copyright issues, but because it wasn’t efficient enough:

The embed code was not pulled consciously; it was a mere effect of an upgrade that benefits everyone since it allowed us to increase the capacity for streams. We fully intended to get you all back to it. As a matter of fact we have been working hard at getting this ready.

I trust Scott enough to know that’s what actually happened, but when his executive director starts sending out emails for folks to take down videos, sure I was a bit paranoid that they’d taken down the secret squirrel way to post videos.

You do.

According to TVW’s 2006 Annual Report, 18 percent of their funding comes from the state of Washington. That more than $2 million state appropriation is off-set by just less than $10 million in in-kind contributions — the balance is the free access to cable air-waves the channel enjoys.

Here’s TVW’s own description of how they’re funded:

TVW is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation, not a government agency. It is governed by an independent board of directors. The majority of TVW’s operating cash – approximately $2.5 million per year – comes from the Legislature via a contract-for-service through the Secretary of State. TVW receives more than $11 million per year in the form of in-kind contributions of channel space from Washington’s cable television industry.

Also included in the public contribution to TVW was $3 million for new digital equipment (beware large PDF) a couple of years ago.

I for one am super-super happy we give money to TVW. Heck, I think we should give more, maybe three times as much a year. TVW is one of the greatest things we spend money on in this state.

But, on the other hand, if they operate on the public dime, we should be able to question their silly copyright that keeps the public at arms length from what they’re doing with our money.

Here’s another point: their most cherished asset is the “gavel-to-gavel” coverage they provide of the state legislature and the state supreme court. Those cameras and audio taping equipment are housed permanently in public facilities. We give TVW more access to our public proceedings than we give any other entity. Even if we didn’t pay $2 million plus to keep TVW going, we should have a say what happens to recordings of our public proceedings.

All that said, I still understand why they’re nervous about letting go of what they consider their content. They feel like they’re beholden to elected officials, and if those electeds feel like TVW is becoming a content-supplier for attack ads, the legislature would be less likely to fund TVW.

I don’t want to point out the obvious, but those elected officials are beholden to the voting public who might have a different opinion about who should have what kind of access to TVW content.

So, if you care, contact your legislative members and let them know that TVW should liberalize their copyright.

“Sdf” at the comments over at Horsesass.org:

Emmet,..
I know for a fact (from a creditable source) that the embedding option was not pulled intentionally. TVW changed to a server based delivery technology to be able to serve a larger audience and the code for how they embed their code changed. It was a technical issue only. Embedding is coming to TVW.org soon, very soon….

Does Sdf=Scott Freeman? If so, he’d be a credible source in and of himself. And, a nice guy if memory serves.

Okay Sdf (Scott), get us some embedding. And, don’t break your back trying to get that time parameter thing working. Embedding first.

Some oldies but goodies about TVW from when I was at Washblog:

I think TVW can do better with social media
TVW is thinking about doing better with social media

My suggestions back then:

1. Put someone in charge. This is something completely different than what you’ve usually been doing. Even though you’ve had a robust website for years, it operates as if its a website for a TV network (which obviously it is). There is no interactive content, no blogs, no sharable video or audio, just streaming video that is almost impossible to capture and share. There are some podcasts (that I enjoy weekly) and I can download a slug of mp3s, but these aspects of the site are aimed at simply providing the content, not really at facilitating the sharing of it.

So, you have to think about this not as part of a a TV network, but rather as a website in and of itself. At a certain point, TVW will actually be more of a website than a TV network. I already don’t watch TVW at all. I am on a dish, and most of my TV is recorded from a DVR anyway. But, I would consider myself a TVW addict, but solely through the website. Putting someone in charge of “online communities” can be a good start.

2. Don’t put everything into a social media format, at first. Start yourself off slow, let the person in charge of your online social stuff pick and choose (and have suggested to them) content that can be put out there as shareable. And, encourage conversation online. There is a real need for somewhere in Washington State politics, outside of newspapers and blogs, for people to come together and talk. TVW has the unique and powerful potential to quickly become this place.

3. Remember the kind of double standard that already exists between the “news media” and citizens using your content. It already kind of miffs me that in your copyright you carve out an exception for bona fide news broadcasters, and as more people get used to being able to share video and audio, more people will get miffed at this double standard. More and more, we are the media.

Also, Mark Gardner can only think about this issue in terms of partisanship and a congressional race. What really is at issue here is a pretty old distrinction between “bona fide” media and the rest of us.

While some folks may want to continue to believe that there is a difference between folks who write and folks who write, there really isn’t.

Mark, you’re a blogger now. Not “bona fide.” Do you think if this was Darcy Burner saying something silly you wouldn’t want to post it. Well, maybe not, but I would want you to be able to, and I’d rather vote for her.

The quicker TVW learns the same lesson the C-SPAN learned last year, the better.

This is stupid.

A while back when TVW was changing over their site to include new sorts of media files, including flash, I figured out a way to embed TVW content. Sweet, now folks can share and push along what TVW produces, exactly as TVW intended it to be used.

Since then, TVW has blocked easy access to their flash files online, making embedding pretty freaking hard, if not impossible. I haven’t been able to find a way, and I probably won’t.

Why this is bad for citizens and TVW:

Ok, fine, you don’t want people like David Goldstein who aren’t employed by a media outlet to be using your files and changing them. But, why cut off people from easily pushing your content?

What TVW does (in the large sense) is only as good as how many people are using it. If I can’t use TVW’s content in a very limited fashion like embedding (not editing mind you), then the millions that TVW pours into its work is useless to me. And, I’m a person who is really interested in what TVW has to produce.

And, for christsakes guys, can you get a podcast to work? I’ve been subscribed to Inside Olympia through Itunes for over a year and it hasn’t downloaded a single episode.